Vehicle repairers

As an employer of a motor vehicle repair workshop, you may be exposing your employees to asbestos fibres from asbestos-containing components such as brake pads/shoes, gaskets and clutch plates.

Many vehicles produced before 2003 are likely to have asbestos containing components, and these parts can remain in the vehicle until replacement is required.

Prohibitions on the use of asbestos-containing products came into effect across Australia on 31 December 2003, and replacement brake pads, brake shoes and clutch plates fitted to vehicles in Victoria after this date must be asbestos free.

As an employer (including self-employed persons), if you need to work on vehicles that contain asbestos components, you must control exposure to airborne asbestos fibres by eliminating the risk so far as is reasonably practicable. If exposure to airborne asbestos fibres cannot be eliminated, you must reduce the exposure so far as is reasonable practicable.

Use this checklist to help you safely find, manage and dispose of asbestos from motor vehicle components.

Find and Identify asbestos

Identifying asbestos containing components in vehicles can be difficult if there is an absence of identifying marks, service records or supplier details. If there is uncertainty (based on reasonable grounds) as to whether any of the components are likely to contain asbestos, then you must either:

· assume asbestos is present; or

· arrange for analysis of a sample to be undertaken.

Samples should be taken in a controlled manner that does not create a risk to the person taking the sample, or people who will work or visit the area where the sample was taken. Under Victoria’s OHS Regulations, only an approved asbestos analyst can analyse samples containing asbestos.

An approved asbestos analyst is an analyst approved by National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) to perform asbestos fibre counting or to identify asbestos in samples and to issue findings as endorsed reports under the authority of a NATA-accredited laboratory.

Control

Asbestos-containing brake pads, brake shoes and clutch plates suffer wear during use, leaving a coating of asbestos fibres and dust on the component and surrounding parts. Asbestos-containing cylinder head and exhaust gaskets can become friable (powdery) with heat and readily release dust and fibres when disturbed. Dry brushing any of these components or even tapping them, for example, can release large quantities of asbestos fibres into the air.

Asbestos fibres can spread large distances and may remain airborne for many hours after the job is finished. In this way the fibres can spread to other areas posing a risk other persons in the workshop.

When packaging asbestos waste for disposal, you first need to establish the specific packaging requirements of the disposal site you plan to use, otherwise it may not be accepted. Packaged asbestos waste must also comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007. For example, the exterior of the container must be decontaminated before being removed from the area where the removal work is performed and it must also be clearly marked to indicate that it holds asbestos.

When the asbestos removal is finished, you must ensure that the asbestos waste is -

(a) disposed of as soon as is reasonably practicable; and

(b) disposed of in an appropriate manner that eliminates the release of airborne asbestos fibres; and

(c) disposed of at a waste disposal site licensed by the Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA).

Disposal must only be at a site licensed by EPA to accept waste asbestos. If you intend to dispose of waste asbestos (both industrial and domestically sourced) you should contact the disposal site operator to check whether the site is appropriately licensed to accept the waste.